\n<\/a><\/p>\nJose has been driving MetroBus for almost 30 years. During that time, he never once expected that the love of his life would step onto his bus. But, one day fate intervened, and that\u2019s when he met Lawanda.<\/p>\n
The two first met while he was driving his regular route in Illinois \u2013 the #1 Main Street\u2013State Street \u2013 back in 2018. Lawanda was new to this route, but she rode almost every day. Jose felt an immediate connection to her, but took his time. After three and a half months, and with a little encouragement from his regular riders, he caught her attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce he finally asked me out, one of the other passengers told me how he was telling her about taking me out, he just didn\u2019t know how to ask me,\u201d Lawanda shared with us.<\/p>\n
![\"Passenger](\"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Optimized-Lawanda-Jose-MetonMetro_3840-300x225.jpeg\")
You could say that after that, the rest was history. The day after he asked her out, they ended up having two dates in the same day! They went to breakfast, and then later that day he invited her to dinner and a movie. And then the next day, they enjoyed another dinner date together!<\/p>\n
The romance didn\u2019t fade. After their whirlwind beginning, they continued to spend a lot of time together, going to movies, to dinner, grabbing snow cones, and singing, dancing and cooking together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really was romantic. I would get her flowers. I\u2019m crazy about her. She\u2019s my queen,\u201d said Jose.<\/p>\n
Lawanda knew they were right for each other. \u201cI knew it was something I was missing out of my life \u2013 there was like a void. And when I met him, it was filled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fast forward to Christmas Eve of 2019, and Jose was down on one knee proposing to Lawanda in front of her whole family. He talked to Lawanda\u2019s kids before proposing, and even had help from her daughters and her mother when picking out the engagement ring.<\/p>\n
![\"Passenger](\"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Lawanda-Jose-MetonMetro_3875-300x242.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
After the pandemic pushed their wedding date back a few months, the two were married on August 1, 2020. Jose even had some of his Metro Transit family there to help them celebrate the big day. Once the pandemic is over, they plan on enjoying a proper honeymoon, and have narrowed it down to three options: Hawaii, Vegas, or a cruise out of Florida.<\/p>\n
And the thing that first brought them together, still connects them to this day. Lawanda still rides Jose\u2019s bus. Jose has been driving on that same route for 12 years, so riders know him. And now they know Lawanda, too.<\/p>\n
We asked the lovebirds their advice for a successful relationship, and they offered three simple principles: trust, compromise and communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you have the unity together, always put God first and then your wife or your husband follows that,\u201d Jose shared.<\/p>\n
Lawanda also knows that sometimes you have to patient when it comes to love. \u201cGetting to know a person takes time \u2013 be patient. Mister Right is there, you just have to be patient and wait on God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In celebration of Valentine\u2019s Day this month, we are sharing the stories of couples\u00a0who met on Metro Transit. This week\u2019s Passenger Profile features two transit lovebirds, Lawanda and Jose.\u00a0 Jose has been driving MetroBus for almost 30 years. During that time, he never once expected that the love of his life would step onto his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1970,1198],"class_list":["post-221906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metro-lifestyle","tag-love-story","tag-passenger-profile"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"featured_media_urls":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Passenger](\"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Optimized-Lawanda-Jose-MetonMetro_3831-1024x768.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Passenger](\"https:\/\/www.metrostlouis.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Linda-and-Lucas-Lowery.jpg\")
You could say that after that, the rest was history. The day after he asked her out, they ended up having two dates in the same day! They went to breakfast, and then later that day he invited her to dinner and a movie. And then the next day, they enjoyed another dinner date together!<\/p>\n